Statutes of Kilkenny

It's one of the big causes in my mind of the 1640s, uh, kind of mess that happens.

Statutes of Kilkenny is something you're probably all very familiar with, and traditionally, like I say, in nationalist history, probably one that I learned in second, in primary school, was such that this is an act of sort of cultural aggression by the English, and to a point, I think that may well be correct.

I also think it's a sort of a self-defense mechanism of a, a, a, a colony that's shrinking, that is, is, is feeling vulnerable, and that these acts are a way of sort of preserving Englishness as much as it is attacking Irishness.

The, the, the traditional interpretation is also to a point correct, but I think to understand where it's going from, it's really interesting.

It must be borne in mind that at the date of this statute commanding the public forensic use of the English tongue, Wycliffe and Chaucer, the fathers of English prose and of English poetry, had already begun their task of creating an English literature.

But of all the legislative measures of this period, the most notable was the statute of Kilkenny, passed at a parliament held in that town in the last year of the decade in the Lent session of 1367.

This famous or infamous enactment gathered up into one and recapitulated with additional aggravations and insults all the former oppressive, exasperating, and iniquitous ordinances by which English legislation for Ireland had hitherto been disgraced.

In the reign of Edward II, the disaster of Bannockburn and the patent incapacity of the government had kindled expectations in the hearts of the Irish of uprooting forever the hated alien rule.

The English by blood became more and more intimately connected and identified with the native Irish, and the English by birth became more and more powerless to maintain the English ascendancy, till at last in 1361 the king determined on sending over a viceroy of the blood royal and appointed to the post his son Lionel, created shortly afterwards Duke of Clarence, whom he had married to Elizabeth de Burr, daughter and representative of the last Earl of Ulster.

But though Prince Lionel on his arrival took the precaution of forbidding any man born in Ireland to approach his camp, his position soon became so critical that the king issued writs commanding all the absentee Irish lords to hasten to Ireland to the assistance of the prince, for that his very dear son and his companions in Ireland were in imminent peril.

The next step was the passing of the Statute of Kilkenny.

It reenacted the prohibition of marriage and foster nursing, rendered obligatory the adoption of the English language and customs, forbade the national games of hurlings and coitings, and the use of the ancient Gaelic code called the Senchus Mor, a code by which the native Brehons or judges of the Irish seps had decided causes among them since the time of the conversion of the race to Christianity in the 5th century.

Terms and conditions apply.

chapter two lionel duke of clarence lord lieutenant the penal code of race the statute of kilkenny and some of its consequences While the grand experiment for the separation of the population of Ireland into two hostile camps was being matured in England, the earls of Kildare and Ormond were, for four or five years, alternately entrusted with the supreme power.

Fresh ordinances, in the spirit of those dispatched to Darcy, in 1342, continued annually to arrive.

One commanded all lieges of the English king, having grants upon the marches of the Irish enemy, to reside upon and defend them, under pain of revocation.

He removed the exchequer from Dublin to Carlow, and expended five hundred pounds, a large sum for that age, in fortifying the town.

the barrier of leinster was established at carlow from which it was removed by an act of the english parliament ten years afterwards the town and castle were retaken in thirteen ninety seven by the celebrated art mcmurrogh and long remained in the hands of his posterity In 1364 Duke Lionel went to England, leaving de Windsor as his deputy, but in 1365, and again in 1367, he twice returned to his government.

This latter year is memorable as the date of the second great stride towards the establishment of a penal code of race, by the enactment of the Statute of Kilkenny.

this memorable statute was drawn with elaborate care, being intended to serve as the corner-stone of all future legislation, and its provisions are deserving of enumeration.